Dec 12, 2012

Merry Christmas?

Yesterday a legal assistant at my firm made this note in our database "Faxed ______ DO [District Office] re: clt being paid. TC _______ DO. On hold 25 min; they just are not answering their phone." The Legal Assistant was trying to contact that DO regarding a client whose Supplemental Security Income claim was approved by an Administrative Law Judge on October 26. So far the client has received no money. If you're familiar with the way these things are supposed to work, this shouldn't be happening. The benefits should have been paid at least a couple of weeks ago. The client is upset. We're trying to get the District Office moving but we can't get them on the phone and they don't respond to faxes. Why is this happening? It's simple. Lack of an adequate staff at that District Office. People who work at Social Security field offices aren't perfect but they typically like to help people. They get frustrated when the best they can do is to give lousy service.

If you aren't involved directly with Social Security field offices, the whole subject of Social Security's operating budget must seem so abstract. A hiring freeze and no overtime at Social Security -- what's the big deal? No one's getting fired. It's a big deal to this lady. She's been approved. She can't get paid. Will her benefits get implemented before Christmas? I wouldn't bet on it. By the way, she's on home oxygen. How many more Christmases will she see?

Here's a radical idea. Since you are her attorney, and have a fiduciary duty to act in her best interest, why don't you just give her an advance on her payment. You know she's been approved. Instead of pointing fingers, just make it happen.

You sound like an SSA employee. This is a great idea in a perfect world but the likelihood of recouping the full amount from the claimant once they finally get their check unfortunately is not great. And if reps were going to do that for one of their clients, then why shouldn't they do it for all of them? For those who practice solely in SSD law, that's a lot of money to be putting out there with no guarantee of getting it back. Geez, talk about pointing fingers!

Have the client contact their Congressman or Congresswoman. It will immediately be brought to the attention of the DM and likely, everything possible to get the client paid, will be made. It may not be fair, but in most cases, it works.

Congressional inquiries, at least during my time in an FO (retired a couple of years ago) were so numerous that they were treated pretty much the same as any other "priority" workload, though as DM I reviewed all responses to those offices. Depending on the office and staffing, Congressional input isn't necessarilyy a miracle cure for delayed cases, sadly.

Get used to it, federal EEs are paid to show up, not to be productive. After two or more decades of hiring for reasons other than getting the best and the brightest, we now have that group as the executives, managers and supervisors who hired and lead a staff that cannot do half the job SSA employees did 20 years ago. Computers do most of the work to insure appropriate questions are asked and answered and benefits are correctly calculated. Phones will be answered when they figure out how to provide an automated system where actions are taken when the caller keys in a response from a list of options. It is a bright future when you reap what you sow.

The delays are awful for people trying to get benefits just to pay their everyday bills. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that are gaming the system, and this is causing a backlog of cases that should be fast-tracked, such as people on oxygen or with life-threatening disorders. Something needs to be done.